I recently had a quick ten minute phone call with a company I work with. They had sent me a survey and asked for a phone call to get more details on why I had answered the way I had answered.
This is a fabulous thing because they actually had a conversation with me on what I was liking and not liking about their business and product. They heard me, in my own words, about what I liked and didn’t like. They were able to ask questions and get more information.
How Does This Apply To You?
I recommended getting in touch with your fans every so often and ask them questions. I’m not suggesting you should be calling fans and giving out your phone number, but you should consider sending out a survey, an email, or some other way of starting a conversation with them, like sitting down on a skype call, or direct messaging them through social media. When you do this you can find out what they are thinking, ask questions to draw out the answers that will help you to plan and grow, and know you are getting information from a valuable source.
Who Should You Be Talking With?
This question and answer time or survey time is not meant for everyone. This is something you should be doing with only your most loyal and trusted fans. Pull people from your street team, from your biggest fans, or from the fans that are kind of like friends. You want the people who know your books and your brand really well because they are the ones who can best speak into the changes you should make and what your core fans want to see. Newer fans or people who have only read some of your work won’t be as informed or well acquainted with your brand as your core fans.
Now What?
Reach out and start communicating. Try doing this every quarter or so in order to get a really good feel for what people want to see from you. It will also help you to correct anything you didn’t realize you needed to shift so that you aren’t doing something that isn’t beneficial for a few years before you figure out it’s not cutting it.
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Stay inspired,
-K.M.